So Lapierre was just on Meet the Press, and IMHO, did the NRA yet more harm and further advanced the need for gun control reform. No matter what Gregory asked him, he just kept repeating the same myopic and unrealistic talking points from his oral bowel movement last Friday.

But it's great to know that Sen. Lindsey Graham keeps an AR15 in his house.

Had to turn it off at that point. You can only absorb so much stupid before your head melts.

Ok, a tool, loosely defined, would be an object or instrument used to assist or facilitate a task. The earliest tools were, quite literally, sticks and stones. As technology has evolved, so have tools.

Compare a rock to a shiny new mass-produced hammer. You can build a better house faster now.

Compare a sharpened stick to 30 shiny new mass-produced bullets in a shiny new mass-produced high capacity magazine in a shiny new mass-produced handgun. You can kill more people faster now.

Is an instrument of death your idea of a tool? Do you really want to define a weapon as a tool? Good luck with that.

Sigh. The key word there is "just" -- as if a gun is no more menacing or lethal than, say, a tape measure or a carpenter's level; downplaying the fact that as a tool for killing things a gun is in a decidedly different category than most other tools people use ...

You could argue that that's technically true in the sense that one can kill another with just a/b anything they can get their hands on. Or that one can kill with one's bare hands alone. But in the practical and humane sense, guns are deadlier and more proficient than anything or any other handheld weapon one might use. A single shot .22 can kill with more efficiency than a knife, an arrow or bolt, or the afore mentioned stick or stone.

So excepting military or law enforcement, why would anyone need the hyperbolically enhanced efficiency of assault weapons and/or high capacity mags? They don't — unless inflicting death or injury on as many as possible or desired is the goal.

Think a/b it, Dave. In that context, it's obscene to classify a gun as a tool. Tools are perceived as positive, constructive, efficient, etc. Adding value as it were. Is a gun a tool for the hunter or sportsman? Maybe. But we're not talking a/b hunters and sportsmen. We're talkin a/b murderers — sane or insane. And in that sense, a gun adds zero value.

Oh, and don't get me started on self-defense. Without hundreds of hours of training, without finely-honed skill and laser-accurate judgement, the risk of wrongful or accidental death is yet greater. I hold my own narrowly avoided experience up as chilling proof.

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